Bezel/Trim Painting & Illumination Mod(s)

First and Foremost! P7
What is P7? You ask.

P7 = Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!

Make sure you have the right tools and the right equipment to use those tools.



It's all well and good to have a can of paint, but if you don't clean and prep the surface you're painting properly, you get crap results.

If you don't wear at least an N95 mask, you're going to get lightheaded and dizzy, and make stupid mistakes that will take hours to fix and have the comfort of knowing you've now got cancer causing chemicals coursing through your respiratory system.

If you're working around more professional quality paints, or something with pretty potent solvents, you'll probably want to get a heavier duty mask with better particulate filters and a tight seal around your breathing holes.

Not pictured are a box of powder-free latex gloves (if you're not allergic) and a pair of clear safety glasses.
Warning - Rambling Anecdote: As I wear contacts, it only took one time of misting overspray in the eyeball to convert me to wearing them. The overspray dried on my contact, unbeknownst to me, and irritated my eyeball until I took the contact out and saw the cured paint dots all over the lens. In that case, I WAS seeing spots.

For this particular project, I'm not going to picture the whole teardown of the interior trim, but we'll cover the center bezel/shift trim assembly.



The first step is to pull straight up on the shift knob. I didn't know how to remove it at first, but it's been documented on THIS forum in in quite a few places. It may help, provided you have the parking brake on and/or have wheel blocks to prevent the vehicle from moving, to turn the key on (don't start the car) depress the brake and shift into Neutral. That will make removing the center bezel a bit easier when you get to it.

Using either a piece of thin wedge plastic (Think of a small prybar, but made from somewhat stiff plastic) or being VERY careful and using a flat blade screwdriver or similar wedge, pry off the shift trim, using the picture above to see where the tabs go, and as such, where you should be applying pressure as you pry.

After that, it's just a simple matter of prying off the center bezel. I start from the bottom, as I am afraid of the three top studs/posts breaking off if I apply too much pressure. Once you get it loose, you'll see why moving the shifter to N makes it a bit easier to maneuver the bezel around to unscrew the A/C control unit.

After you've removed the bezel and shift trim, get some high percentage isopropyl alcohol (90%) or use "Goop" hand cleaner/stain lifter to get the pieces free of any dust, dirt, grime, grease and oil.

At this point, for all you smokers out there. Stop smoking. Don't smoke around your project. Just...Don't.

Tape off any sections your don't want covered in paint. For the vent louvres I used masking tape, and for the PRND shift letters I used Electrical tape. (This is because the lacquer doesn't react to the vinyl in the electrical tape, other paints MAY have issues on this stuff.)




Give your pieces another once over to clean off any picked up dirt and grease from taping and get out your plastic primer.

-Note: I'm sure the "All-in-one" paints that claim to bond to plastic without primer work fine in most situations. However, due to the different textures and grade compositions of plastics involved, I'd highly recommend using a common primer for the paint to bond to so that you have consistent results.


(I used a couple screws to keep the radio knobs paintable from all angles.)

Use light coats, as directed by the paint manufacturer. Usually two light coats are all you will need, and any more is just overkill, causing you to wait longer before applying the middle color coats.

Primers differ in the amount of time before you can apply a top coat, so follow the directions.

Top coats should be applied in thin coats. A good rule here for beginners is, if you think it's thin...it's too thick. The first and second coats will probably leave some of the original color showing. Applying the paint too heavily, or painting the next coat before the first has had a chance to dry enough WILL result in "sand it down and start over" conditions. Orange peeling and "fish eyes" as well as the extreme of sagging and noticable dripping are sure indicators that you're being too impatient, spraying too close to the surface, sweeping across the surface too slowly or you are having flashbacks of your days as an overpass graffitti artist.


(Mostly done. A clear topcoat and gentle handling are all that's left!)


(Slightly out of focus, the camera didn't focus well on the extremely shiny surface.)

Notice the timestamps on the photos. It will, if properly done, take at least two days for your paint to cure enough to put it back into your vehicle. Even then, I would avoid any rough usage, touching or cleaning for at least 3 days, especially if your car is sitting out in the heat, which will help it cure, but the painted surface will be initially soft and will take on fingerprints as a permanent fixture.



Meanwhile...



As I was waiting for paint to dry, I got to work on a few illumination mods I had in mind.

Using 3V LED's with an inline resistor to work on 12V systems, I wired up a few spots on the console.

(To Be Continued...10 Image limit reached...)